Here you go, Chapter 9:

"Alvin" says Brittany "Alvin, wake up"

She puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes him. He opens is eyes to find she is looking at him. He looks at himself. He's not even under the covers, he must have fallen asleep soon after he lay on his bed the previous night.

He groans, and rolls over to face the wall. Brittany climbs down the ladder. Worth a shot, right? She feels a little hurt, like Alvin is mad at her.

'But why?'

Simon pats her on the shoulder "Don't worry Brit, I'll get him"

She smiles, "Okay" and goes downstairs for breakfast.

Simon climbs up the ladder, and looks at his brother "Alvin"

There is no reply.

"Alvin, are you awake?"

"Yes" comes Alvin reply. He sounds sleepy, and a little mad.

'I guess he's not feeling any better' Simon thinks to himself.

"Al... You have to get up. It's a school morning"

Alvin groans again, and sits up. He blinks hard a few times, adjusting to the light of the room. He rubs his eye, and runs his fingers through his hair.

"How are you feeling?" Simon asks, leaning on the railing.

He gives a simple shrug. He's still too tired to have found his voice yet.

"Okay..." says Simon "Well, I'll see you downstairs"

Alvin nods, still not 100% awake. He can remember everything that happened last night at prom clearly. He winces, rubbing his arm. He want's to forget everything that happened. His eyes fall on the clock. It's 7:15. They leave for school at 8. He still has enough time.

'I better get up' he thinks, miserably 'At least it's Friday'

He climbs down the ladder, rung by rung, and hit's the floor with a thud. He stumbles along, still rubbing his eyes, trying to clear his head. The others are already at the breakfast table. The only spare seat left is next to Brittany.

'Shit' he thinks, and stands at the bottom of the staircase.

Everyone falls silent, and they look at him. Their eyes show a mixture of concern, worry, and confusion. Simon and Jeanette seem to know what's going on a little better than everyone else, upon seeing his outburst last night. Eleanor and Theodore look worried, although that's mainly because they don't want him to ditch them, not so much because of the problems he's been facing.

Brittany is the confused one. She doesn't know whether to be mad at Alvin for hating Chase, or worried about him. He looks genuinely sad, and he hasn't told her why. It looks like he doesn't even want to talk to her anymore. She misses their friendship.

"What?" Alvin says, grumpy "You don't have to stop having fun just because I'm here"

They exchange glances. Alvin is not in a good mood this morning, so they decide to leave him alone.

Alvin stares at himself in the mirror, a little surprised at what he sees.

He usually looks alright in the morning, considering he isn't a morning person. He usually looks happy, even though he isn't.

But now, he has bags under his eyes, his hair is a mess, and he looks sad. He smiles at himself, his best smile. That doesn't help much, even he can see the smile is fake. He feels so stupid, like he's overreacting. He's gradually shutting everyone out. He's starting to worry about himself. If he doesn't fix things soon, what will happen to him?

He tries to smile again, but gives up, and lets out a sad sigh. He combs his hair, and brushes his teeth.

The door creaks open, "Alvin?" comes Brittany's soft voice.

He turns around "What?"

Brittany can't tell what the emotion is in his voice. Anger? Sadness? Tiredness? Or is there no emotion in Alvin's voice?

'Jeez, I know it's the morning time, and Alvin's not a morning person... But this is the worst I've ever seen him'

"What do you want?" he says, a little snappier than before.

Brittany looks taken aback "Oh... I was just coming to see how you were"

He rolls his eyes "I'm fine!"

She gulps "Oh, okay... Sorry to bother you"

He just looks at her in the mirror, as she closes the door.

'What a lie' he says to himself, looking at his emotionless face 'Clearly, I'm not fine. Even I know that'

Alvin sighs 'I'm going to have to talk to her sometime... If not, she'll probably hear it from someone else, and that can't make matters any better...'

Brittany closes the door. Jeanette and Simon are waiting for her.

"H-how is he?" Jeanette asks, a little nervous for the reply.

"He's 'fine' apparently..." Brittany trails of, shaking her head "Which is a complete lie. Of course he isn't fine!"

Simon and Jeanette look at each other, then back at Brittany.

"What?" she asks "...What do you two know?"

Simon is quick to reply "Nothing, nothing..."

Brittany frowns at him "Alright... Sure" she begins to walk off "You can play dumb, but I'll find out eventually. I'm going to talk to Alvin sometime"

Simon glances at Jeanette, keeping his back faced to Brittany. Her footsteps disappear down the stairs. He lets out a relieved sigh.

"I'm kind of worried now" he chuckles quietly "Brit is so determined. If she wants to find something out, she will find it out"

It's at that moment that the bathroom door handle rattles. Simon grabs Jeanette's arm, and pulls her into their bedroom. They lean against the back of the door, breathing heavily. They hear Alvin walk downstairs.

Simon glances at his watch "We better go, it's 7:55"

Jeanette takes his hand, and they walk outside to the car together.

Dave pulls up into the school car park. Alvin does not feel in the mood to face a whole day at school. Then again, when does he ever want to go to school?

"I'll see you guys at 3:15" he says, as they all grab their backpacks, and step outside the car.

Dave drives off.

Simon checks his watch "15 minutes until we have to be in class. I'm gonna go to the library and return some of my books. Jeanette, wanna come with me?"

Jeanette nodded, and they walked off together. Eleanor and Theodore exchange glances.

"Ellie, want to go for a walk with me?" he asks sweetly.

"Sure" she replies.

Alvin and Brittany look at each other, then look away. They hadn't been alone together for a while. Even last night, when they were driving home, Dave was there. This time, they were actually by themselves.

"So..." Alvin said "You and Chase?"

She nods slowly "Yeah... Me and Chase"

Alvin gave her a crooked smile.

"Are you okay with that?" she says, feeling like she just hurt him.

"Well I have to be, don't I?" he says back to her.

"Alvin..." she takes a deep breath "Are you sure, I mean, you've been acting really weird over the past week and it's starting to scare me... If there is something wrong, please tell me now"

He looked at her. She was being serious. She really did want to know if he was alright. Maybe he could tell her how he felt, and she'd let Chase go and they could be happy together. He opened his mouth to reply-

"Alvin!" Amelia came running over.

Alvin sighed deeply "Sorry, Brit. I-I'll see you later"

"Alright. Bye" said Brittany, in disappointment. They'd gotten so close to having a proper talk before Amelia ruined the moment.

"Hi Amelia" he said, trying to sound happy.

"Hey" she grinned, giving him a hug.

He was a little surprised at first, but then he hugged her back.

'Does she like me?' Alvin thought. It felt nice to have someone like him, after all the rejection and hurt he'd been through with Brittany.

His fake smile turned into a real one as she let go of him.

"How are you?" she asked, sweetly.

"I'm better" he shrugged with a light chuckle "Thanks"

"Thanks for what?"

"I don't know" he smiled "Just for being there for me. It's been a tough week, and you've made it better"

"Oh... That's okay" she suddenly felt shy, letting out a small giggle.

The bell rings.

"Oh. I'll see you at lunch time, right?" Alvin asks, feeling like she'll cheer up him.

She nods "Sure"

He quickly leans forward and kisses her cheek, causing them both to blush.

"B-Bye" he stutters, and walks away.

He looks up and realizes that Brittany had been waiting for him.

'Oh no...' he thinks, slowing down 'She must have seen me and Amelia'

He stops briefly, and then shrugs off the thought and continues walking 'Oh well. She kissed Chase last night, on the lips. Why can't I give Amelia a little peck on the cheek? Plus, she doesn't even like me, so why should she care?'

But unknown to Alvin, Brittany was starting to care. She had to admit to herself, she did feel jealous that Alvin was paying more attention to Amelia than he was to her. She missed when they always used to hang out, and when they were close, and she was probably the only girl on his mind.

Did she like Alvin... That way?

'No' she shuddered at the thought 'I couldn't like Alvin. I have a boyfriend now. And Alvin has an... Amelia type person. And he's mad at me, I know it... Why would he like me? I've done nothing but snap at him and ditch him for Chase this whole week. He wouldn't deserve me even if he wanted me'

She was starting to feel a little guilty about ditching Alvin and the other four for Chase. Yeah, they were her best friends, but she really liked Chase...

Ever since she'd been seeing Chase, the two kept drifting further and further apart... She wondered if they'd ever have the same relationship ever again.